Self laminating wristbands of various inventive designs have been made and sold, and achieved immense commercial success, by the assignee of the present invention. Many of these have been patented by the assignee including those covered by one or more of U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,000,160, 6,748,687, 7,047,682, 7,017,293, 7,654,024, 7,763,344, 7,779,569, and others of record assigned to the assignee hereof, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. In its continuing efforts to develop improved wristbands to meet the varying needs of its customers and users, the inventors herein have succeeded in designing and inventing a new self laminating wristband which incorporates many of the same advantages of previous designs but which also provides significant new advantages and features.
Perhaps the first of the assignee's patented wristbands includes a full length image or imaging area adhered to one of a pair of aligned, full length, symmetrical and mirror image lamination panels, each of said lamination panels including a shorter, narrower tab for securing the wristband around a patient's wrist. Upon separation of the wristband from a carrier sheet, the lamination panels are folded over and adhered to each other to laminate the image area. Then the wristband is wrapped around the patient's wrist and secured with one or both of the tabs.
Another of the assignee's many previously patented wristbands that has met with tremendous commercial success incorporates a reduced length image area adhered to one of a pair of laminating clamshells. One of the laminating clamshell halves has a strap and a cinch slot is die cut into both the clamshell halves opposite the strap so that after separation from the carrier the wristband and lamination of the image area, it may be secured by wrapping the strap around the patient's wrist and then threading it through the slot, adhering the end of the strap back onto itself to complete the process. One of the advantages of this design is that by using a shorter lamination clamshell with a strap extending from just one of the clamshell halves in place of the full length lamination panels, space becomes available for a wristband extender to be die cut into the space otherwise occupied by the full length lamination panels of the above described earlier design.
While this newer design form and wristband has many advantages which make it attractive for adoption in new installations, adapting it for use in installations using the assignee's (and others) previous designs requires re-programming, reformatting, and possibly other printer changes to ensure that the printed information reliably lands on the differently sized and located image area. This retrofit thus requires some effort and expense and also raises the possibility of transition issues. For these reasons, among others, once an installation is set up and running, there is a reluctance to change despite the advantages of newer design wristbands and forms, one of which is the extender provided by the newer clamshell design. And, unfortunately, there has been an experienced shift in the population towards increasing body weight and even obesity in not just the US but around the world. Thus, the availability of a wristband extender is increasingly important to be able to properly secure the wristband to a patient's wrist.
In use, it has been found that in many existing installations using assignee's earlier wristband design, with the full length image area and short end tabs, printed information is generally formatted to be left margin justified (or could readily be left margin justified) and ordinarily does not utilize nearly the full length of the image area, leaving a goodly portion of the image area blank and unused. Thus, while this wristband maximizes the amount of image area available for printing, in practice a good deal of it is unused, and typically in many cases it's the right side that's predominantly left blank. Yet another issue found in practical application of this wristband is that it is symmetrical after being laminated so that a health care professional could choose to wrap either end over the top of the wristband to secure it around the wrist. Unfortunately, if the wrong end is wrapped over the top of the other end, there is a chance that it would cover over and obscure the printed information. This is possible because the wristband is symmetrical so that memory must be relied upon to choose which end to wrap first. While not a serious issue, and especially for more experienced health care professionals, this can result in some wastage and required re-printing of the wristband.
The inventors herein have succeeded in inventing a wristband form that combines many of the advantages of both designs which can be conveniently used as a “no-transition-issue” retrofit for existing installations and which also frees space in the wristband area of the form for a wristband extender. This newest inventive design incorporates a reduced length image area with one reduced length lamination panel along with self adhering tabs to attach the wristband, with the image area (and a lamination panel) being “edge justified” to the left margin so that most left justified printer installations need not be modified. In other words, the image area and one of the lamination panels are truncated at their right side to be shorter than the other lamination panel, but otherwise aligned with the mating lamination panel for lamination of the image area. Many installations print two blocks of information: one block with patient/Doctor id information in standard text and a second block with a printed bar code. Typically, these two blocks may be separated to enhance reading accuracy. While margins at the left edge and between these two blocks may extend the overall length occupied from the left edge, the relative spacing of this information is usually readily adjusted with simple software entries so that both blocks may be conveniently re-located to fit within a nominal four inch long image area. Thus, it is anticipated by the inventors that most previous installations may readily be transitioned to this new wristband.
As the lamination panels are of different length, the wristband is asymmetrical with a single ply lamination strap/tab extending to only one side. Furthermore, by applying the adhesive to the bottom of the tab adjacent the image area and to the top of the tab at the opposite strap end, these tabs are naturally usable when the strap end of the wristband is brought underneath the image area, so that the adhesive coated tab surfaces face each other or some other part of the wristband, thereby ensuring that the wristband is wrapped properly around the wrist to not cover or obscure the printed information. Stated another way, it is natural to not wrap the strap end over the top of the printed area in this design while it was not intuitively obvious which end wrapped under the other in the earlier design as both ends looked the same. This asymmetrical design thus helps to eliminate any possible confusion about how to apply the wristband to the patient's wrist.
By making one lamination panel shorter than the other, space adjacent to the shorter lamination panel is freed for another die cut in the lamination ply to define a wristband extender. Actually, preferably, the die cut defining the wristband extender is within the “profile” of the wristband in that in it fits within the height and width of the overall dimensions of the wristband, thus not extending either of the height or width of the wristband area of the form. This ensures that no “real estate” is lost which might encroach on the label area to reduce the number of labels in the single sheet business form.
The image area of this invention is preferably releasably adhered to its lamination panel so that another label may be conveniently substituted for it before it's laminated, thereby making the wristband more versatile. Furthermore, when the wristband is separated from the form and laminated, the wristband forms an ovoid which helps the laminated image area stay centered atop the patient's wrist. This is facilitated by making the image area shorter than the circumference of the typical adult patient wrist.
This inventive wristband design may also be provided in a separated image area format, thereby providing two (or more) separate image areas. Along with this feature, a number of “special precautions” labels may be provided, die cut into the lamination ply and possibly colored, which increases the flexibility of the wristband for use on patients subject to those special situations.
While the principal advantages and features of this invention have been briefly summarized above, a fuller understanding may be attained by referring to the drawings and description of the preferred embodiments below.